


Hold Him Close

by AnabielVriskaMars



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 02:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6220429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnabielVriskaMars/pseuds/AnabielVriskaMars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Papillon was kneeling on the floor, his face hidden behind his hands.</p><p>His transformation had fallen apart, and now it was time to see who it was.</p><p>Ladybug did not even have a chance to see his face before she heard Chat's knees hit the floor, and a tiny whisper.</p><p>"Father...?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold Him Close

**Author's Note:**

> I'VE BEEN WRITING FICS ALL WEEK SOMEBODY HELP ME

Ladybug and Chat Noir were tired. There was no denying the fact.

Their Kwamis had been amazing this fight, lasting longer than they ever had.

Ladybug had finally managed to kick the Papillon's cane from his hand, where his Kwami was hidden. She saw his body hit the ground, face hidden in his hands while he tried to hide his identity.

This was it. The moment they'd been waiting for.

She turned to Chat, only to share a glance with him in their moment of triumph and--

Chat fell to the floor on his knees. His face was pale. His green eyes were wide as plates.

There were so many emotions in his face that Ladybug herself was scared. She turned back to the Papillon, where Chat's eyes were fixed, and gasped.

Gabriel Agreste held his face in his hands, for once in his life looking like a defeated man.

She heard a whisper, barely a breeze of a word that the wind should no have carried to her ears and her heart stopped.

"Father...?" Chat choked.

Ladybug's eyes widened in response, but Chat wasn't looking at her. She looked back at Gabriel Agreste, who was picking himself off the ground and charged at her.

"Give them to me!" Gabriel cried. " _Give them to me!"_ The tearing screams from his throat were enough to crush Ladybug's heart smaller than it had ever been. The worst was yet to come. Gabriel muttered something, and then repeated it louder.

"It's the only way! They'll bring her  _back!_ " Gabriel threw another punch at Ladybug, whose heart tore itself like a sheet of paper every time Gabriel spoke. She turned to the side and saw Chat still on the floor, as if he had been frozen in place. 

Ladybug did the only thing that occurred to her at the moment.

Before Gabriel managed to pick himself up to throw another punch, Ladybug threw one of Chat's arms over her shoulder and jumped out of the window and into the night.

* * *

She took him to the empty balcony over her room. Frankly, she wasn't thinking straight.

She sat Chat on the ground against the rails, completely catatonic. He hadn't said a word since the tiny whisper she shouldn't have heard.

Because now she knew.

Her partner was Adrien.

Their enemy was his father.

She thought he was handling a lot better than she would have, frankly.

Ladybug knelt on the ground next to Chat and put her hand gently on his cheek, trying to get him to look at her. When he did, he wasn't seeing her, just staring past her at something she would never see.

Ladybug's heart was already a mess of tears and breaks and cold and cracks. She didn't know how much longer she would last seeing him like this.

But she had to.

"Chat," she whispered softly, so softly, that she thought Chat hadn't heard her. But her voice had opened a dam inside of him, and everything came pouring out like a flood.

Chat Noir threw himself into the arms of Ladybug and wept as he never had before. The tears slid off her suit easily, but every sob that came out of his lips broke her into a million pieces more. She was only parts of a girl now; a puzzle with pieces so tiny that nobody could assemble it again.

She held him close against her chest, her face in his hair and her arms wrapped around him so hard one would think he'd turn into water and slip through her fingers.

"Adrien," her voice was only half as broken as the sobs that left his lips. "Adrien, I'm so sorry."

She whispered those words so many times they almost ceased to mean anything. "I'm so sorry," became Ladybug's entire voice, and the only words in her head and her heart, and she whispered them over and over again.

It took him a good ten minutes to get himself only mildly under control, but Ladybug still felt the warmth of tears slide over her suit.

"H-he said," Adrien took a deep breath to steady himself, but broke down again. It took him a few seconds to gather himself again. "He said he could bring her back." He choked. "M-my mother."

Ladybug pressed him harder against her and kissed the crown of his head. He untangled himself from her and looked straight into her eyes, his puffy and red rimmed, clearly even under the mask.

"If he gets them--" He began, but Ladybug stopped him.

"We can't," she whispered. She understood his train of thought, and everything inside her ached at her own answer. Every word that came out of her mouth was a stab to her chest. "Adrien, we can't."

Adrien was shaking, but his eyes were not angry or desperate, they were just so, so sad. He knew they couldn't give up their Kwamis. 

That didn't stop him from wishing with all his heart.

And that didn't stop Ladybug from wanting to reach deep inside his chest and tear out all the pain in his heart and take it for her own.

He rested his head against her, crying quietly, and that's when she heard it.

His ring was beeping.

A second later, so were her earrings.

She only held him tighter as his transformation fell apart, and saw his ears disappear and his dark suit dissolve into his regular clothes. She never, for one second, let go of him.

Not even when she felt the mask disappear from her eyes, and her suit turn into regular clothes. She only held him hard against herself, pressing his ear against her heart, as if that was enough to tell him that he was not alone.

She caressed his hair so gently, it was barely a touch. However he felt it and took her hand in his and pressed it against his cheek, as if her warmth could pull him out from whatever abyss he had flung himself into. Marinette used this hand to guide his face and planted a kiss on his forehead, trying to ease all the pain, though she knew it was impossible.

For the first time, Adrien raised his sight and saw her.

"Marinette...?" He asked weakly, but today he was all out of emotions. Marinette only smiled softly at him and hugged him again, cheek against cheek, heart drumming against heart. This time Adrien's arms gained strength and he wrapped them around her, too, holding on to everything that was left in his life.

"Its okay," she whispered softly into his hair. "Its okay, I'm here." She lulled the same words, over and over again, and slowly felt his shaking subside and the tears begin to dry on her shirt. "I'm never gonna leave you." 

Even after he'd stopped crying, Adrien held on to Marinette. He needed warmth, and comfort, and love, and she was all these things. He held onto her as if she were a hearth to sit around and he'd been out in a storm. She never stopped caressing his hair gently and lovingly.

"You can stay here tonight," she whispered in his ear. "You don't have to be alone." She hugged him tighter. "Never again."

She felt him relax, just a little, and her heart began reassembling itself piece by piece, though it was far from complete.

He pulled back and looked at her with eyes that threatened to break what little of her heart that had rebuilt. He looked at her as if she was not really there, and she smiled, just a little, and squeezed his hand.

"Let's get inside, chaton, its getting cold," she whispered softly, because they were encased in glass and a loud noise would throw them back into desperation.

Adrien wiped his face with the palm of his hand.

"I-I don't want to impose." His excuse was barely feeble. Marinette held on to his hand and stood up, pulling him with.

"Come on," she said gently. "You need a shower and some hot chocolate."

That night, Adrien Agreste slept in a makeshift bed on the ground next to Marinette Dupain-Cheng's bed, and he didn't let go of her hand in the entire night.

 


End file.
